ravencr

Well, unfortunately I don't have any pics or video from this trip, because it was raining the entire time we were out. It was the muddiest trip I've been on in a long time, and we had only one mishap.

We got on this trail that had a ton of mud holes, none of which I really enjoyed at all. I hate mud really, but the trails were pretty nice other than that. But, we came up on one that was about 50 ft long and looked to be pretty deep, but when we measured it, it didn't seem all that bad.

So, we started in, and it kept getting deeper and deeper, and then the front right side started going over the tire and into the bottom of the fender flare, so I backed up knowing that there was a deep rut there. So I turned up to the left a tad, which got the front end out of the rut, but the back end didn't quite make it. As a result, the water was up to the top of the rear fender, the muffler was gone, and water was in the entire right side of the 4runner!

Then, I tried backing up with no success. I thought we were screwed, but I put it in reverse, and started slamming the brakes with my left foot while giving it gas, and luckily we slowly started moving out of the mud hole. I couldn't beleive it!

I just have to say that so far, in the mud, rain, clay, slick rocks, etc. the Bridgestone Deuler AT Revos are really good tires. I'm going to step out on a limb and say that so far a mudder or rock tire wouldn't have been able to go anywhere I wasn't able to go yet. I'm very impressed so far!

Needless to say, I've got some serious cleanup of the 4runner tomorrow. My buddy's feet were soaked, and it stinks like swamp crap. Other than that, we had a blast! I just wish I had some pictures and videos of us in the hole.

Chris

Mojo_Risin

Hmmm. Pretty small limb your stepping out on there.

Glad the Revos worked well for you.

Mojo

ravencr

Yeah, I know, but I have yet to come to a place that these tires can't handle yet. I'm sure I will, and I'm sure there is a difference between the two types of tires, but I have to say that out of all the all-terrain tires I've had, these are the best by far. I would love to have another 4runner with me at the same time, doing the same trails and have the MT/R's or a mud tire to see the difference. That would sell me!

Chris

HaveBlue

That's the kind of news I like to hear!
My Revos will be here *hopefully* on Wednesday.

Chris-
What did you have before the Revos and what do you think of the Revos? Ride, handling, etc...
If I remember a recent e-mail, you have 285s, right?

Thanks!

calrockx

that's awesome dude, glad to hear you made it. i love that feeling of getting out of something you thought you might not make. have fun cleanin up

ravencr

Yeah, I have 285's. Before these I had the worst set of tires I've ever had that actually came on this 4runner when I bought it. They were the Dunflop Grantrek AT20's or something like that. They were out of round, and I ended up being able to get a credit towards my Revo's, because they had only 1-2/10's of wear on them and only 8K miles. It worked out great!

As far as the ride quality, they ride as good as my michelin LTX's I have on my 1998, and better actually. They are a tad noisier, but not bad at all. In the rain, I actually tried to get them to peel out, and even with the S/C, it's a touch thing to do with these tires. Don't get me wrong, I could have fried them, but I didn't want to, just wanted to see how hard it was going to be to break them loose. Off-road, I haven't ever owned a mud tire, but these things stick to wet, dry, clay(dry or wet), anything I've put in front of them. I can go places in 2wd open diff in places up hill rocky, etc. and it just sticks to the trail. It's crazy!

I'm running 40psi on the road, and on the trail I've been running 20 psi, and it seems to be treating me pretty well. You'll love them!

Chris

keisur

so after all this are you starting to think about lockers?

ravencr

No, I've been thinking about lockers my entire lift it seems like. I've got the e-locker in the rear already, but I would love to have an ARB upfront eventually. I just have to save up for that one!

Chris

keisur

you'll be happy if you got the ARB I tell you that. I gave mine a good workout on Friday, first hard wheeling/crawling session since I installed the dual setup. I was purposely leaving it in 2wd until I got stuck, then I would shift into 4wd and try to get stuck even more. When I would finally get stuck I would enage the lockers and they would get the thing moving again, like it wasn't even stuck! That's an amazing feeling. even in the mud holes I would get stuck and start to sweat, then engage those things and crawl on out.

ravencr

Yeah after making my rear bumper, front bumper, sliders and possibly purchasing skid plates, I'm going to get the ARB locker and regear as low as I can go.

Chris

P.S. Do you happen to know the lowest axle gears I can go with on a 1997 4runner?

Mad Chemist

Chris,

I'm sure you were with a friend in a second vehicle to pull you out just in case you hydrolocked yours, since you wouldn't have done anything silly like going wheeling by yourself, right?

ravencr

Of course I would! We had a ton of recovery equipment that could have easily pulled us out of the hole, but in the event of hydrolocking my 4runner, we would have been screwed, which is part of the fun, isn't it! Oh, I forgot, I took a picture today of the water line on the door of the 4runner. Check it out, and unfortunately there wasn't one on the rear door and quarter panel to show you how much deeper it was when the rear tire dropped into the rut.



I wish I had a water line for the rear, because it was about a foot deeper once it slid into the rut!

Chris

keisur

I wouldn't go any lower than 4.88's if yours is a daily driver like mine. I run some pretty high rpm's in 5th gear on the interstate at 80 mph. 5.29's I wouldn't even try it. I know steve S. has 5.29's but I'm not sure if his is a trail rig only or also a DD.

EDIT: I changed the 5.88 to 4.88, accidentally hit the 5 when I was posting. I meant 4.88's.

keisur

Yea, I was totally by myself on Friday. Stupid but I was only about 200 yards from my house so I could have walked home.

Didn't the water level come in the front pass floor? isn't the computer in the kick panel area in your 4runner? or is it mounted higher? I thought it was a little higher but I remember reading somewhere about relocating it because it was mounted low.

turboale

Man do I feel your pain! That happened to me last easter, don't know if your remember, but it got my whole truck. I'm really glad you got your truck out though. It is NOT FUN getting mud in the whole truck. Espcially when you have a $900 stereo in the back. Yeah, lost that and my stock alarm though my power locks have yet to work b/c they were scared to hook them up to the new "brain". The best thing for clean up is start out with a hose. I took all my seats out and took them apart and cleaned each of them out well and hose out the whole floor (I had caked mud throughout) then take some carpet cleaner to it. I used a bissel foam carpet cleaner stuff, it worked quite well and even took care of a bit of the smell, but i'm sure there is something more potent you could use. Just don't get something that will stain the carpet. I'll post a pic of my truck again if you don't remember seeing it, but I also don't want to beat a dead horse. I have posted it a few times... Glad to hear you didn't hydrolock. My low side was the driver side, so I didn't have to worry about the computer, just the alarm/sub :cry: . And ALWAYS take a camera!!

Flygtenstein

The lowest gear you can put in an 8" Toy diff is 5.71

The story goes that the pinion is weak and tiny. It is at least as small as my 5.29's, which is small indeed.

Do us all a favor and wheel with someone else. Getting stuck alone is not cool. Getting killed alone without anyone to save your butt is worse.

When I run into people who are alone, I stop to help, but someone is really stuck from being really foolish, I would really laugh long and hard before getting them out.

What is this talk of crawling out of mud? I have never seen such a thing.

To make the rest happy...
Wait until you wheel a MT. That will blow your mind

ravencr

It is a daily driver, but I'm going off-roading quite a bit lately, and having a lower gear for those steep declines when it's wet would make it it a lot more comfortable. What ratio are you running now? Also, are there lower gear sets for the transfer case that we can get for 3rd gens with automatics? That's really the way I'd like to go, because then I could still get decent gas mileage on the highway too. I don't need to regear for power purposes either, because it's S/C'd.

Chris

ravencr

The ECU is actually mounted directly behind the glovebox about a foot and half above the floor board. I was okay there, but it was getting close, that's for sure.

Chris

ravencr

Yeah, I had my video camera with me but it was pouring down rain, and to get out of the truck wouldn't have been a fun experience either. So far no problems since I've been back, so everything seems to be in good working condition. I'm sorry to hear that all that stuff went bad in your truck. I'd love to see pics or a link to the thread on it.

Chris

ravencr

I couldn't beleive it either, but when I put it into reverse and started really pumping the brakes, it was peeling out but I barely had the gas on. Crawling, probably not the best word, but amazing for my tires, I thought so.

Yeah, my next set will be the best rock or mud tire out at that time, so I can compare the two and decide which is the best for me.

Chris

P.S. Does anyone know what ratio on a 3rd gen would take it back to stock if I'm running 285/75's and 265/70's before?